The McMillan Arts Centre Community Garden is celebrating the construction of a brand-new greenhouse.
The project was funded through a $116,000 grant from Agriculture Canada and built by BC Greenhouse, according to Dan Larocque, who spearheaded the garden last year. It's already seen a bumper crop of vegetables and fruits.
The greenhouse was completed approximately three weeks ago, in time for an open house on July 31.
“We’ve had a lot of people come in from the foot traffic coming by here and then people who already know about it," Larocque said. “We’re giving away more than we can grow at this point, so if any other local farmers or gardeners have food we can definitely pass it along."
Plenty of tomato plants are growing in the greenhouse currently, Larocque said, and there will be a fall seeding of kale and lettuce.
“We’ll be able to grow at least until the end of October," he said. "We’ll see how we do into November and December, depending on the weather and if we can get some lights in there."
Larocque's fruit tree gleaning operation, the PQB Fruit Tree Project, is starting to pick up steam as well, preventing more food from being wasted.
The garden began last year as a partnership between the MAC and the PQB Fruit Tree Project.
It came about when LaRocque and MAC executive director Jennifer Bate, who play in a rock and roll band called the Apollos, were looking for a venue to host a new community garden.
The MAC and the community garden are located at 133 McMillan St. More information about the garden and the PQB Fruit Project is available at pqbfruit.org.
